Viet nam – ready to take opportunities
30 May 2010 at 02:46 elenakuehn 12 comments
By Elena Kuehn, KF 11, Viet nam
Viet nam is a country bursting of energy, activity and a continuous striving of the people to improve their living standards and enable their children to lead a better life. To achieve this people are willing to work incredibly hard. That makes Vietnam a great place for microfinance activities. And not only are the people ready to take on hard work, there is also a financial growth that rewards the effort. In this atmosphere of growth microfinance provides poor families in this country with the means to participate in this growth.
I have started my Kiva Fellowship 3 weeks ago and have already visited 3 of the Kiva field partners and many Kiva borrowers. What impressed me most when talking to the people and discussing their living situation, the loan impact and their future hopes is the fact that they constantly point towards their children and grandchildren. When I ask how the loan has improved their lives, I hear stories about how they were able to send their children to school for longer and provide them with better means to be successful in life.
The Vietnamese family plan foresees only 2 children for each couple, people with more children face a fee that can be a great burden to poor families. So many people comply with this rule. This makes the focus, and, I imagine, also the pressure on the young generation even higher. But with providing their children with a good education a family in Vietnam actually has a very realistic chance to lift themselves from the very bottom of society into a middle class position.
Entry filed under: Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women, KF11 (Kiva Fellows 11th Class), SEDA (Binh Minh), TYM Fund, Vietnam. Tags: .
1. Maria | 9 September 2010 at 02:51
Hallo Elena,
danke für den interessanten Bericht. Wie kann ich Ihnen eine mail schreiben, habe eine Anfrage in Sachen Presse.
vielen Dank
Maria Riederer
2. Christine | 7 August 2010 at 08:00
Elena,
Thank you so much for the reporting
. I’m a Kiva lender and it’s nice to see actual footage of KIVA sponsored families. My hats off to you for adventurous undertaking!
Christine
3. Fred | 6 June 2010 at 14:14
Hi Elena,
Well done!
I am happy to see a first hand report showing that Vietnam is in a process of comtinuing economic improvement. I visited Vietnam in 1961, before the war, but the signs of impending trouble were already apparent. When i arrived at the office of my business contact, a bomb had exploded in the street just 2 buildings away, with one dead and 8 wounded passers-by.
We have supported a series of children in Vvietnam over the last 20 or so years thru SOS Kinderdorf, and i will certainly look for vietnamese lending proposals on Kiva.
Lots of luck – and keep up the good work
fred
4. Julie Ross | 2 June 2010 at 14:10
This is great, Elena! Thanks so much for giving us this glimpse into Vietnam!
5. Kati | 1 June 2010 at 20:38
excellent video, Elena -what a good mix of first-hand accounts, graphical representation, photo shots, and great narration. I can’t wait to see more!
6. Katharina | 31 May 2010 at 12:42
Fascinating impressions…
The dynamic pictures and the interviews perfectly represent the intention of Vietnamese people to imrove their living standards as well as the importance of microfinance activities supporting them to achieve.
7. Diego | 31 May 2010 at 10:25
Great report about Vietnam and it shows perfectly how microfinance loans help people. Congratulations!!!
8. Stefan | 31 May 2010 at 07:02
Well done!
Keep it going.
9. Roland Will | 30 May 2010 at 12:47
Dear Elena
What a contrast to our life (and by the way our “loan activities”) here in Zurich. I wish you intensive and successful experiences in Vietnam!
10. Thorsten | 30 May 2010 at 09:03
great report !
11. david oglaza | 30 May 2010 at 08:16
When travellingin SE Asia Vietnam is a very impressive and well organised when compared to itsneighbours. Its more communist approach has definately worked here!
12. Ruben | 30 May 2010 at 04:15
cool:-)